As I read, “The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women And How All Men Can Help” how violence is a men’s issue. My thoughts about the reading were that even in today’s society, domestic abuse is considered to be a one-sided problem only involving females. How the mass media has a huge impact on abuse. How alpha male culture influences male motive to abuse their partner. Now with the media, it’s portraying women as being sex toys and objects to men.  Within the alpha male culture, media portrays men as being “non-feminine”, Rap videos, and hip-hop influences, and showing how men have power. As even today a female is being abused by their partner and doesn’t know what to do and ends up getting killed by their partner is something that in today’s society we have to help those females who are being domestically abused by their partner. As well this is a gender issue in today’s world.

The reading “The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help” by Jackson Kate’s was a kind of reading I have never read before. Many people have their own preferences and do different things to bring them to sexual pleasure. I believe that women are the most objectified gender in society by men. Jackson goes on to explain that the usage of pornography can shape boys and mens view of girls and women. Men have always felt the need to have sexual dominance and essentially have women cater to their sexual needs whether it be from a prostitute, pornography, and strip clubs. Men don’t think about how all of these forms of sexual exploitation can effect us women deeply. Reading this article honestly made me sick to my stomach because I realized that all of it is true. The way men treat women just to get what they want and most of the time, us women accommodate so we can please these men. When will they start pleasing us? When will our views, what we say, and our body matter? The power that men have over us is unfair because no one should have dominance over anyone in reality. Jackson says “Thus if we want to reduce the level of sexual violence perpetrated by boys and men, we need to critically examine the environment in which we socialize boys and establish norms in male culture”. I agree with this because as a while society, we have established norms in male culture that should be changed because it doesn’t consider how we feel as women and being objectified all the time.

In the article, “The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help” by Jackson Katz, he examines the cultural influences that develop concepts of masculinity and the reality that men’s violence against women is not a woman’s issue, but rather a man’s issue. Katz suggests the root of violence lies within the constructs of what it means to be male or macho. Katz also states pornography is designed as an industry that suggests men aren’t capable of relationships and insists men not take personally women’s stories of victimization. I would have to disagree with that statement because a lot of men have been thrown in jail due to women making claims that they were sexually victimized by a man.

Although the reading was a bit difficult to read and I do not agree with some of the content, men need to see their own roles in continuous misogyny and sexism that results in school aged girls, women in the workplace reporting they have experienced some form of sexual harassment. Until all people decide to change the way we view men and women, violence in America will continue.

There are so many feminists to learn about that I had no clue about. I was impacted By Ida B. Wells, she was a Journalist and educator leader for the civil rights movement. She also fought for women right’s especially Black American women. I realized how many activists that are women are never talked about . Women suffrage was a crucial time because it led us to vote and have rights. Activism especially from women has led to positive change.   

I felt that the reading “100 Years toward Suffrage: An Overview”, and the video Untold Stories of Black Women in the Suffrage Movement teaches a lot and helped give me a deeper perspective on women’s suffrage, and the immense contribution by Black women. I see that with many other things Black contribution is glossed over, and a large amount of the credit is lost. I feel that this kind of material is really important to go over, especially with something so important. I also think that the stories in the video give these events a sense of how difficult it was for some of these women, and how hard they worked to bring about the change that they wanted to see. Many people with crucial roles in these movements such as Ida B. Wells genuinely do sometimes go unnoticed. I have a newfound appreciation for how far back a lot of these things were established, and all of the activists that contributed to these things.

I had a lot to think about in terms of the rights of trans women. I used to watch “Pose” a lot, and it made me think about this whole “passing” thing. A common trope I’ve seen in a lot of movies and shows, mostly for shock factor, is showing transwomen and revealing they are “men.” By that, it means revealing to the audience that they have a penis. Or they have a scene where a guy hooks up with a woman while drunk and then his friend says something like, “Dude, that’s a man.” It’s supposed to be a huge shock because the character “passes” as a woman. It’s a sickening trope, and they use it to demean transwomen and make them feel less of a woman by outing them. Especially those who couldn’t afford to have a sex change. In “Pose”, I noticed the women who “passed” were treated far better than the ones who didn’t. And that’s something that happens to cisgender women. Women who have sharp masculine features. Women with short hair. Bodybuilders. It’s like to be a woman, you have to fit into this box. It makes me wonder how one even decides if one is a woman or not. What factors into whether or not someone is a woman? Because there are intersex women. Some women don’t have periods. Some women don’t have breasts and last but not least, some women can’t have children. So what makes a woman? And why do we give men the power to decide whether or not we are women? 

This week’s video had me learn about a person that I did not know about but am happy the I now know because she impacted and strived for a change. This is Ida B. Wells, she was a Jounalist and educator in leader the civil rights movement but also fought for women right especially African American women. This made me realize how many other influential figures of movement are never talked about or brought up. The women suffrage was a crucial time for women because it led us to be able to vote and have rights, it is amazing to me how early on activism has been in the community. I knew there was activism for many years but never really knew where it started and with what movement. 

Claire Goldberg Moses’ “What’s in a Name? On Writing the History of Feminism” described the organized women’s movement with sexuality, reproduction, peace, etc. It gives me a unique way of understanding what I thought I knew about the movement. Skimming through “One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview” specify exactly when and what happen and help me visualize during what time happen during the women suffrage movement. All these resources contribute to getting an understanding of the movement and what parts were missing that were not thought to us.  

In the Vox article, The waves of feminism, and why people keep fighting over them, explained by Constance Grady she mentions the damaging stereotypes that were formed around feminists in the 1980s. “Second-wave feminists as humorless, hairy-legged shrews who cared only about petty bullshit like bras instead of real problems, probably to distract themselves from the loneliness of their lives, since no man would ever want a (shudder) feminist”.

This stood out to me because it is very sad and familiar. I grew up in the 80-90s and I remember there being a stigma around feminism. Feminists were framed as bitter, angry, and man-hating. This took on the overwhelming view of the feminist.

This seems like the epitome sexism. Women can’t have feelings beyond a small range of ones that are centered around what men want from them. Of course no one likes to be angry and bitter, but we become angry because something is not right, our basic needs are not being met.

I am in awe of the women, and activist in general, that have continued to stand up day after day- century after century without getting completely defeated and giving up. Honestly I would understand if someone were in fact a little bitter at the end of the day. That is still not a good reason to not honor equality.

Reading the story about the Macho paradox made me realize that for decades, the debate over pornography has played out mostly between the pro-sex feminist camp and the anti-pornography feminist camp. However, the landscape is changing. Sex-positive feminists are trying to claim the mantle of feminism and are claiming that anti-porn feminists are anti-sex or anti-women. At the same time, men who seek to challenge the dominant, male-centric sexology of pornography are also calling themselves feminists.

I feel that feminism is not a fixed meaning. Granted, every generation changes the way feminism is viewed. I thought feminism was just was fighting to have equal rights like men. I do believe that sexism, violence, discriminating women fall hand in hand. I read a classmate state that feminism can be used by women in other cultures. This video about women suffrage showed me and gave me view in their foots and how they fought for what was right. I agree with many others that believe these stories should be taught more, it’s impactful, motiving and inspiring. These women deserve so much credit and respect for standing up for what they believe in and bringing other women together to do the same.